The objective of the Baylor Mentored Diabetes Investigator Award (MDIA) is to provide didactic structure and mentoring for physician scientists, who are committed to academic careers in pediatric diabetes research. Our program provides: 1) well established, peer review funded, clinical investigators with a track record of mentoring; 2) excellent research resources, programs and facilities; 3) educational support in the area of study design, statistics, molecular biology, and/or other cognates; 4) assurance of an appropriate and successful mentor match from the beginning; and 5) development of research and training program of the scholar. This award will ensure our success in training physician-scientists conducting cutting-edge diabetes research by: 1) facilitating the ongoing development of individual didactic and research training programs for our scholars; and 2) providing much needed salary and research support to protect time for their individual research and educational efforts. Scholars will develop a 5-page research proposal with their mentors as part of their applications to the program. All applications will be reviewed by a Program Advisory Committee, selected from the overall mentoring faculty, and the Graduate School Admissions Committee. The educational support will be derived from the: 1) curriculum specifically developed for the trainees of the Baylor CSTP; 2) the clinical and basic science curricula at Baylor; and 3) courses at affiliate institutions such as UT-School of Public Health. Our program has 27 clinical investigators as model mentors. All model mentors have active research programs and significant experience in mentoring physician-scientists. Fellows and junior faculty in the section of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism, committed to diabetes research careers will be the primary beneficiaries of this program. The funding of this program is crucial to our success in training academic physicians with independent peer reviewed research funding.